RECORD OF CAPTAIN BEECHER 107 



ing his head, or blowing his brains out. Upon which Six- 

 and-eightpence expressed his intention of seeking a friend, 

 and went hectoring away to Tommy Coleman, at whose 

 inn the scene had taken place. " Well, I'd advise you to 

 let the Cap'n alone," said Tommy, with a grin. " He 

 chucked two men out of winder yesterday, and as for 

 exchanging shots with him, you're a dead man if you try 

 that on ; why, bless 'ee, he's killed three men already, and 

 if you go out with him the coffee won't be for ^ou." There 

 was a fading of the lawyer's rubicund complexion after 

 that; yet he still expressed his intention of finding a 

 second. He must have gone very far afield in his search, 

 Tommy said, for he never paid his bill. 



There were times, however, when the Captain was not 

 over particular about feather-bed comfort. One winter's 

 night he arrived at a country house unexpectedly. " What 

 the devil shall we do?" the host exclaimed. "We're full 

 up; haven't as much as a shake-down to give you." 

 " Have you got an empty stall in your stables ? " the 



Captain asked. " Yes ; but my dear fellow " " All 



right, I have made myself comfortable under worse con- 

 ditions." And, with a good truss of straw and plenty of 

 horse-cloths, he said he had a bed fit for a king. 



In the famous match between Colonel Charritie's 

 Napoleon, a slow, half-bred horse, but a magnificent 

 jumper, and Squire Osbaldeston's Grimaldi, for ^looo 

 a side, Beecher rode Napoleon and the Squire his own 

 horse. At St. Albans, Napoleon had been nowhere against 

 The Clown ; but here was a six-mile course over a stiff 

 country, and the river Lem to swim. The Pytchley, of which 

 the Squire was Master, met at Dunchurch, and a regiment 

 of scarlet coats lined the Lem side, which was the thirty- 

 eighth jump and sixth from the finish. Osbaldeston was 

 not a good swimmer ; the Captain was. But when they 

 arrived at the river, both went in headlong and dis- 

 appeared. So long was the immersion that it was thought 

 Napoleon would come up no more ; but at last Beecher's 

 cap was seen, then his horse's ears, and the pair floated 

 down-stream, Napoleon fighting against it with all his 

 might, yet upon landing he got the best of it by a hundred 



